The B.A. in English requires basic coursework in literature, writing, and language theory, and provides flexibility to students in pursuing additional courses that match their areas of interest and career goals. It can lead to graduate study in English, creative writing, law, or other academic or professional areas.

Foreign language study is strongly encouraged for all English majors.

Each student graduating with a major in English will participate in a senior exit interview, normally in conjunction with ENG 4990 Senior Workshop. This review will provide a means of self-assessment for each student and program assessment for the department.

Each student graduating with a major in English will participate in a senior exit interview, normally in conjunction with ENG 4990. This review will provide a means of self-assessment for each student and program assessment for the department.

Students who wish to meet Nebraska certification regulation for the teaching of English in secondary schools may include ENG 2960 Special Projects and ENG 3260 Greek Drama as electives within the major. Students should consult the Department of Education regarding additional Nebraska certification requirements.

ENG 2000 Introduction to Textual Studies (4 hours)

This course will introduce new English majors and minors to the critical methodologies, concepts, and terminology needed for the analysis and discussion of literature and other cultural texts and to the kinds of research and scholarship they will be asked to do in their later coursework. Students will also learn about a range of career paths open to those with a background in English.
(Normally offered every spring semester.)

ENG 2510 Introduction to Linguistics (4 hours)

Students study principles of linguistic analysis and survey various theories of English grammar. Topics include: English phonetics and phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and subfields of linguistics.Prerequisite(s): Sophomore standing or instructor permission.
(Normally offered alternate fall semesters.)

ENG 2520 History of English (4 hours)

An introductory course in the historical and grammatical development of Modern English from Old English and Middle English.Prerequisite(s): Sophomore standing or instructor permission.
(Normally offered alternate fall semesters.)

ENG 2600 Introduction to Ancient Rhetoric (4 hours)

Students will study the early history of rhetoric, drawing upon the Greek and Roman traditions and those of at least one additional culture. Students will focus on the major tenets of these rhetorical traditions, enabling them to analyze a variety of texts from multiple cultural perspectives.Prerequisite(s): Sophomore standing or instructor permission.
(Normally offered alternate spring semesters.)

Archway Curriculum: Integrative Core: Power Thread

ENG 3530 Studies in Linguistics (2 hours)

A course in which students will concentrate in depth on one subfield or topic in the domain of linguistics. The particular subject will be determined each time the course is offered.Prerequisite(s): Junior standing or instructor permission.
(Normally offered every other year.)

A course in which students will concentrate in depth on one topic within the domain of rhetoric. The particular subject will be determined each time the course is offered.Prerequisite(s): Junior standing or instructor permission.
(Normally offered every other year.)

A survey of British literature that provides a historical perspective to British writers and genres, from the middle ages to the present.Prerequisite(s): First Year Writing.
(Normally offered every fall semester.)

Archway Curriculum: Essential Connections: Writing Instructive

ENG 2070 Introduction to U.S. Literature (4 hours)

A survey course providing a historical perspective on the culture of the United States through the study of its literature from its historical beginnings to the present.Prerequisite(s): First Year Writing
(Normally offered every spring semester.)

This course will proceed from the premise that Herman Melville's 1851 novel, Moby Dick, encapsulates the story of America and that the book's whaling ship, the Pequod, serves as a floating embodiment of American democracy. The course will situate Melville's novel within the context of mid-nineteenth century American political history and explore what the book suggests are the achievements and limitations of American democracy.Prerequisite(s): First Year Writing course.
(Normally offered alternate spring semesters.)

A systematic study of the outstanding literary artist of the English language: comedies, tragedies, and historical plays. Cross listed with THTRE 3000.Prerequisite(s): First Year Writing, ENG 2000 Introduction to Textual Studies or THTRE 1020 Script Analysis and Junior standing.
(Normally offered spring of odd-numbered years.)

Archway Curriculum: Essential Connections: Writing Instructive

ENG 3200 Monsters, Miracles, and Magic in the Literature of Later Medieval England (2 hours)

A course in the literature of the medieval period in England, emphasizing the period's linguistic diversity and focusing on texts featuring situations or characters that in some way transcend ordinary experience.Prerequisite(s): ENG 2000 Introduction to Textual Studies and junior standing.

ENG 3210 Chaucer I (2 hours)

A course on the work of the poet Geoffrey Chaucer, his London dialect of Middle English, the different genres and subject matter of his major poetry, and that poetry's cultural and literary context. This course is designed in two linked but freestanding two-credit, eight-week courses.Prerequisite(s): ENG 2000 Introduction to Textual Studies and junior standing

ENG 3230 American Transcendentalism (2 hours)

This course will study the 19th century Boston- based movement known as American Transcendentalism, a movement that was equal parts literary, philosophical, religious, and reformist. Writers studied will usually include Emerson, Fuller, Hawthorne, Thoreau, Whitman, Melville, and Dickinson.Prerequisite(s): First Year Writing and junior standing or permission of the instructor.
(Normally offered fall of odd-numbered years.)

Archway Curriculum: Essential Connections: Writing Instructive

ENG 3240 Literature of the 1920s I (2 hours)

A course devoted to literary modernism in English-- the revolutions in poetry and fiction undertaken on both sides of the Atlantic after World War I. William Butler Yeats, James Joyce, and Virginia Woolf will be among the writers studied in the first course, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and William Faulkner among those studied in the second. This course is designed in two linked but free-standing two-credit, eight-week courses.Prerequisite(s): ENG 2000 Introduction to Textual Studies and junior standing or permission of the instructor.
(Normally offered spring of odd-numbered years.)

Archway Curriculum: Integrative Core: Chaos Thread

ENG 3250 Postmodernism (2 hours)

This course will examine the influential artistic and philosophical movement known as postmodernism. Although the main focus will be on literary postmodernism, students will be encouraged to explore the application of postmodern theory to consumer culture, architecture, film, music, and other fields.Prerequisite(s): First Year Writing and Junior standing or permission of the instructor.
(Normally offered fall of odd-numbered years.)

In this course, students will read a selection of plays by ancient Greek playrights: the comedies of Aristophanes and the tragedies of Aeschylus, Euripides, and Sophocles. For a semester project, students will work as a collaborative team to write and perform a dramatic work (along with related documents) to demonstrate their understanding of the genre, period, and culture.Prerequisite(s): First Year Writing and Junior Standing.

A course devoted to literary modernism in English -- the revolutions in poetry and fiction undertaken on both sides of the Atlantic after World War I. William Butler Yeats, James Joyce, and Virginia Woolf will be among the writers studied in the first course, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and William Faulkner are among those studied in the second. This course is designed in two linked but freestanding two-credit, eight-week courses.Prerequisite(s): ENG 2000 Introduction to Textual Studies and junior standing or permission of the instructor.
(Normally offered spring of odd-numbered years.)

Archway Curriculum: Integrative Core: Chaos Thread

ENG 3310 Tocqueville‘s Democracy in America (2 hours)

Since its publication in 1831, Alexis de Tocqueville's Democracy in America has remained a classic text in sociology, political science, and American cultural studies, both as a document of what the United States was like in the half-century before the Civil War and as a dissection of our national character. The course will be devoted to reading, discussing, analyzing, and writing about Tocqueville's influential study.Prerequisite(s): POLSC 1000/POLSC 1000FYW United States Government and Politics and junior standing or permission of the instructor.
(Normally offered fall of even-numbered years.)

Archway Curriculum: Integrative Core: Democracy Thread

ENG 3320 Irish Literature and Irish Nationalism (2 hours)

A course in the historical and political contexts of modern Irish literature, including the work of William Butler Yeats, James Joyce, Seamus Heaney, and others.Prerequisite(s): IDS 1200 Identity: An Introductory Exploration or ENG 2000 Introduction to Textual Studies or junior standing or permission of the instructor.
(Normally offered fall of odd-numbered years.)

Archway Curriculum: Integrative Core: Identity Thread

ENG 3360 Modern Novel (2 hours)

This course in the development of the novel since the end of World War II, uses examples drawn primarily from Great Britain, the United States, and the Anglophone world.Prerequisite(s): ENG 2000 Introduction to Textual Studies and junior standing.
(Normally offered spring of even-numbered years.)

ENG 3370 Chicano Novel (2 hours)

An introduction to the contemporary Chicano novel, generally including (but not limited to) the work of Sandra Cisneros, Rudolfo Anaya, Helena Maria Viramontes, Ana Castillo, and Dagoberto Gib.Prerequisite(s): First Year Writing and junior standing or permission of the instructor.
(Normally offered spring of odd-numbered years.)

Fiction and essays by women from various cultures (including the U.S., Europe, Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean) will be the focus of this course. The multicultural, international reading list will provide students insight into the lives and experiences of women most likely very different from themselves; thus they can appreciate and learn from the differences and make connections across cultures.Prerequisite(s): First Year Writing and sophomore standing.
Cross-listed with GEND 3410 Women Writing Across Cultures.

A thematic course designed to complement the more traditional offerings in British and American literature. The emphasis will be on the shock of colonization, the oppression of imperialism, and the struggle for independence. Attention will also be paid to the encounter of the individual with the questions of God, family, love, war, work, change, and death.Prerequisite(s): First Year Writing and Sophomore standing.

This course supplements the basic American survey course. Its aim is to acquaint students with representative autobiography, fiction, drama, poetry, literary criticism, and essays by African-American writers from Frederick Douglass to Toni Morrison.Prerequisite(s): First Year Writing and Sophomore standing.
(Normally offered spring of even-numbered years.)

Student in this multi-genre composition and writing course will develop their skill in both academic and creative writing as they explore what it means to be creative across multiple written mediums.
(Normally offered annually in fall or spring semester.)

An introduction to the writing of fiction with an emphasis upon a variety of forms, techniques, and narrative voices. Discussion of student writing will take place in a workshop setting.Prerequisite(s): First Year Writing or permission of the instructor.
(Normally offered every spring semester.)

An introduction to the writing of poetry with an emphasis upon a variety of forms and techniques. Discussion of student writing will take place in a workshop setting.Prerequisite(s): First Year Writing or permission of the instructor.
(Normally offered every fall semester.)

The focus of this course is on the writing process and its product, as applied to a particular genre (scriptwriting, risk fiction, risk poetry, creative nonfiction, the essay, biography) or concept (writing the body), which will vary from semester to semester. The course is conducted as a workshop in which students read their own compositions to the class and respond to the compositions of their classmates. Students may request Chair approval to repeat this course for credit with a different genre.Prerequisite(s): First Year Writing.
(Normally offered each spring semester.)

An advanced course in the writing of fiction within a continued emphasis on a variety of forms, techniques, and narrative voices. Discussion of student writing will take place in a workshop setting. Specific topics will vary by semester. Course may be repeated for credit with the permission of the instructor.Prerequisite(s): ENG 2170 Introduction to Fiction Writing or permission of the instructor.
(Normally offered each fall semester.)

An advanced course in the writing of poetry with a continued emphasis on a variety of forms and techniques. Discussion of student writing will take place in a workshop setting. Specific topics will vary by semester. Course may be repeated for credit with the permission of the instructor.Prerequisite(s): ENG 2190 Introduction to Poetry Writing or permission of the instructor.
(Normally offered each spring semester.)

Analysis of and practice in writing news feature stories for a variety of publications. The course will stress audience appraisal, interviewing, and research.
(Normally offered alternate spring semesters.)

Archway Curriculum: Essential Connections: Writing Instructive

THTRE 2000 Play Reading (1 hour)

Play reading is a course that focuses on the reading, discussion, and interpretation of dramatic texts. Its aim is to provide a concentrated study of both content and form of selected texts in an effort to broaden knowledge of dramatic techniques genre, and strategies for interpretation. Dramatic texts will vary each semester with the goal that students will gain knowledge of a large quantity of plays during a four-year period. This course may be repeated for credit up to eight times for Theatre Arts majors and up to three times for Theatre Arts minors.

THTRE 2810 Playwriting I (3 hours)

Playwriting 1 is a course introducing students to the principles of dramatic construction and formal devices of playwriting. Students will write individually and collaboratively in large groups, small groups, and pairs. Emphasis is given to creative writing exercises exploring monologue, dialogue, character in text, language as action, scene structure, exposition, and conflict. Students will have the opportunity to share writing in class and receive feedback in a supportive workshop environment. Students will critically reflect on what they've written and assemble a portfolio of their writing.
Students may not receive credit for both THTRE 1810FYW Playwriting I and THTRE 2810 Playwriting I.
(Normally offered each spring semester.)

A survey study of instructional materials of special interest to the junior and senior high school age. Examination of various sources of print and nonprint materials. Includes bibliotherapy, book-talk techniques, notable authors/producers, and prize winning materials. Discussion of censorship, controversial issues, selection criteria, and the tools to keep abreast of the field.
Cross-listed with EDUC 2690 Young Adult Literature.
(Normally offered alternate fall semesters.)

Archway Curriculum: Essential Connections: Speaking Instructive

EDUC 2690 Young Adult Literature (3 hours)

See ENG 2690 Young Adult Literature.

Archway Curriculum: Essential Connections: Speaking Instructive

EDUC 3390 Methods for Teaching Reading and Writing in 7-12 (3 hours)

A course focusing on the methodology, processes, and content of reading and writing at the secondary school level. Particular attention is given to strategies effective in teaching developmental reading and writing, content area reading and writing, and basic skills in diagnosis and remediation. Laboratory experiences are provided. No P/F.Prerequisite(s): Acceptance into the Teacher Education Program or permission of the department chair.
(Normally offered each fall semester.)

Archway Curriculum: Essential Connections: Writing Instructive

EDUC 3600 Student Teaching for English Language Learning (1-3 hours)

A diagnostic view of all elements pertinent to teaching English in middle and secondary schools. Strong practical emphasis will be placed on the proportional and organized development of middle and secondary English courses, realistic presentation of materials, and the practical and varied methods of testing appropriate to such courses.Prerequisite(s): Acceptance into the Teacher Education Program or permission of the department chair.
(Normally offered each semester.)

ENG 2200 Topics in World Literature: Sexualities (4 hours)

Each course in the Topics in World Literature group will study a selection of literary works that engage the chosen topic--texts of different genres, from historical eras, and from different cultural traditions. The selected readings will present both abstract principles involved in the topic and its immediate, lived realities.Prerequisite(s): Any First Year Writing course.
(Normally offered every fall and spring semester.)

Each course in the Topics in World Literature group will study a selection of literary works that engage the chosen topic--texts of different genres, from historical eras, and from different cultural traditions. The selected readings will present both abstract principles involved in the topic and its immediate, lived realities.Prerequisite(s): Any First Year Writing course.

Each course in the Topics in World Literature group will study a selection of literary works that engage the chosen topic--texts of different genres, from historical eras, and from different cultural traditions. The selected readings will present both abstract principles involved in the topic and its immediate, lived realities.Prerequisite(s): Any First Year Writing course.

Each course in the Topics in World Literature group will study a selection of literary works that engage the chosen topic--texts of different genres, from historical eras, and from different cultural traditions. The selected readings will present both abstract principles involved in the topic and its immediate, lived realities.Prerequisite(s): Any First Year Writing course.

Each course in the Topics in World Literature group will study a selection of literary works that engage the chosen topic--texts of different genres, from historical eras, and from different cultural traditions. The selected readings will present both abstract principles involved in the topic and its immediate, lived realities.Prerequisite(s): Any First Year Writing course.

Each course in the Topics in World Literature group will study a selection of literary works that engage the chosen topic--texts of different genres, from historical eras, and from different cultural traditions. The selected readings will present both abstract principles involved in the topic and its immediate, lived realities.Prerequisite(s): Any First Year Writing course.

Each course in the Topics in World Literature group will study a selection of literary works that engage the chosen topic--texts of different genres, from historical eras, and from different cultural traditions. The selected readings will present both abstract principles involved in the topic and its immediate, lived realities.Prerequisite(s): Any First Year Writing course.

Each course in the Topics in World Literature group will study a selection of literary works that engage the chosen topic--texts of different genres, from historical eras, and from different cultural traditions. The selected readings will present both abstract principles involved in the topic and its immediate, lived realities.Prerequisite(s): Any First Year Writing course.

Each course in the Topics in World Literature group will study a selection of literary works that engage the chosen topic--texts of different genres, from historical eras, and from different cultural traditions. The selected readings will present both abstract principles involved in the topic and its immediate, lived realities.Prerequisite(s): Any First Year Writing course.

Archway Curriculum: Essential Connections: Writing Instructive

ENG 4980 Ways of Reading: Theory and Practice (4 hours)

A course in the theory and development of literary criticism including a general overview of theories of literary criticism before the 20th-century and 20th-century critical theories.Prerequisite(s): Senior standing.

ENG 4990 Senior Workshop (2 hours)

A senior-level research and writing seminar. In this course students produce a research paper of approximately 20 pages or an original work (e.g., a short story) supplemented with a 10-page essay that explains their work critically. At the end of the term, students make panel presentations about their work to the entire department, and each paper is read by two faculty chosen by each student.Prerequisite(s): Senior standing.

Archway Curriculum: Essential Connections: Writing Instructive

ENG 1010FYW Writing and Language (2, 3, or 4 hours)

Students in this composition course will develop their skills in academic writing as they learn about topics drawn from the study of language, such as the history of language, language and gender, linguistic diversity and language policies in government and education.
(Normally offered every fall and spring semester.)

Archway Curriculum: First-Year Curriculum: First-Year Writing

ENG 1020FYW Writing and Literature (2, 3, or 4 hours)

Students in this composition course will develop their skill in academic writing as they respond to and analyze literature.

Archway Curriculum: First-Year Curriculum: First-Year Writing

ENG 1040FYW Writing and Identity (2 hours)

Students in this composition course will develop their skill in academic writing as they explore the relationship between academic discourse and the evolution of identity.

Students in this composition course will develop their skill in academic writing as they use writing to process the concepts in a particular academic discipline.

Archway Curriculum: First-Year Curriculum: First-Year Writing

ENG 1060FYW Writing and Media Literacy (2 hours)

Students in this composition course will critically examine and analyze aspects of mass media and popular culture in order to explore how the media are used to construct meaning and/or to persuade.

Archway Curriculum: First-Year Curriculum: First-Year Writing

ENG 1070FYW Writing and Social Media (2 hours)

Students in this composition course will explore how digital technology shapes composing practices through critical engagement with new media formats in order to produce multimedia works of their own.

Archway Curriculum: First-Year Curriculum: First-Year Writing

ENG 1080FYW Writing and Civic Engagement (2 hours)

Students in this composition course will develop their skill in academic and professional writing as they seek to understand, and use writing to act upon, complex social issues.

Archway Curriculum: First-Year Curriculum: First-Year Writing

ENG 1090FYW Writing and Numbers (2 hours)

Students in this composition course will study and practice the verbal representation of quantitative thought.

Archway Curriculum: First-Year Curriculum: First-Year Writing

ENG 2960 Special Projects (1-15 hours)

Supervised individual projects for students on topics selected by the student in consultation with the instructor. Special Projects may not duplicate courses described in the catalog.Prerequisite(s): Permission of the instructor.

The online version of the Nebraska Wesleyan University catalog supersedes any printed catalog or
PDF version as the official catalog of NWU. NWU reserves the right to make changes in the regulations
and offerings announced in this official online version, as circumstances require. It is expected that
the only changes will be the correction of errors and the inclusion of new courses and programs approved
during the academic year.